Mekong Delta Tour, 5 Days: Cai Be, Can Tho, Cu Chi and Saigon

A driver meets you at Tan Son Nhat Airport and brings you into the city. There is no programme today, so any arrival time works. Saigon is a city of motorbikes, and the first lesson is to cross the road slowly and let the riders go round you.

Once you have dropped your bags, the evening is a good time for a first walk around District 1 (on your own, no guide). After dark the pavements fill with low plastic stools, and a bowl of noodles or a grilled pork roll from a street kitchen is the right first meal in the south.

You leave the city early for the delta, where the Mekong splits into its last arms before the sea, and board a boat on the Tien River for Cai Be. The first stop is Ba Kiet Ancient House, an old wooden family home set in a fruit garden, where you taste whatever is in season while local singers play a short set of southern folk music.

A hand-rowed sampan then takes you along the narrow canals under the water coconut palms. You call at a workshop where coconut candy is boiled, rolled and cut, and after that it is your turn in the garden kitchen: a cooking class on the dishes you have been eating all morning.

In the afternoon you cycle the flat village roads between the orchards before your driver takes you on to Can Tho, the main city of the delta.

The floating market at Cai Rang works best early, so you set out at the start of the day. Wholesale boats moored on the Hau River hang a sample of what they sell from a bamboo pole, pumpkins, pineapples, sweet potatoes, and smaller boats weave between them selling coffee and noodle soup to the traders. Your boat goes in among them.

From the market you visit a family workshop where rice noodles are steamed in sheets, dried and cut, then Munir Ansay Pagoda, a Khmer Buddhist temple in the city, and the fruit gardens of Con Son, an islet in the Hau River where you walk between the orchards. After a local meal in Can Tho, you drive back to Ho Chi Minh City, about three and a half hours on the expressway.

You drive northwest to the Cu Chi Tunnels, a network dug by hand during the war. A short documentary explains how a whole district lived below ground, then you crawl through a widened stretch of tunnel yourself and taste boiled manioc with tea, the staple of the people who lived here. A shooting range on the site can be added (optional, extra cost).

Back in the city, the afternoon links the landmarks of the colonial centre, all a short walk apart: Independence Palace, kept as it was in 1975, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Central Post Office and the War Remnants Museum, where the photographs need a strong stomach but explain a great deal. The day ends in Cho Lon, the Chinese quarter, at Thien Hau Pagoda, where coils of incense hang from the roof. A ride on the water bus along the Saigon River can be added (optional, extra cost).

The tour ends with a transfer to Tan Son Nhat Airport at a time that fits your flight. If you leave late in the day, the markets near the centre are a good place to spend an hour: Ben Thanh for souvenirs, or a cafe for a glass of ca phe sua da, the iced coffee with condensed milk that the south drinks from morning to night.

Want longer? Extra nights in Saigon or an onward transfer are easy to add. Just tell us when you book.